The status bar has so many other options which are very helpful. Knowing these options and how to use the status bar properly will help you while working in Excel. We cannot change the Status bar position but can customize the status bar options.
Let’s discuss the options that are available in the status bar and how to use them.
What is a Status Bar in Excel?
The status bar is a thin bar at the bottom of the excel window that displays the status of the selected options while working in Excel.
When you open the excel file, by default, it will display the 3 types of workbook view options, zoom slider, zoom level at the right side of the status bar and cell mode and Accessibility on the left side of the status bar.
Default Options on the Status Bar in Excel:
Cell mode:
It will display the currently active cell editing mode on the left side of the status bar. Below are the editing modes.
Ready: When nothing is happening in the worksheet, the status will display as ready. It means the worksheet is now ready and you can start working in Excel.
Edit: It means the cell is in editing mode. Whenever you double-click a cell or press F2 to enter or edit data in a cell.
Enter: This mode is also like edit mode with a bit of difference. Enter mode Indicates content entry mode. It will display whenever you start typing in a cell.
Whenever you double-click or press F2 to edit data in a cell, the status will display as Edit and when you start typing directly into a cell or press F2 twice to enter data on an empty cell then the status will display as enter.
In edit mode, the arrow keys will move the cursor within a cell and in enter mode, the arrow key will move to its direction.
Point: Indicates formula cell selection mode. It will display when you start a formula in any cell and select another cell to include in the formula.
Workbook Views:
On the right side of the status bar 3 workbook views will be displayed. You can click these buttons to change the look of the workbook.
Normal view: This is the normal view we usually see when we open the workbook.
Page layout view: Page layout view displays how each page will look when we take a printout of our work with headers and footers.
Page break preview: Page break preview displays where the page breaks will appear when we take a printout of the worksheet.
Zoom Level:
This option indicates the present zoom level of the worksheet. You can click on the zoom option to open the zoom dialog box where you can select the percentage from any pre-existing options or can manually specify the percentage you want.
Zoom In, Zoom Out and Zoom Slider.
This option displays the Zoom slider with zoom-in and zoom-out buttons. By default, the slider will be in the middle at 100% zoom level. You can drag the zoom slider or use zoom in and zoom out buttons to change the zoom ratio.
By clicking the zoom-in and zoom-out buttons, you can increase or decrease the zoom ratio by 10%.
You can zoom between 10 – 400% in Excel using any of the zoom options.
Data Stats:
When you select a range of cells containing numbers in an Excel worksheet, it will show the data stats in the status bar.
You can see the Average, Count, Numerical Count, Min, Max and Sum of the selected range.
If you select a range of cells that contain only text, you can see only the count of the selected cells.
Customizing the Status Bar:
While excel shows useful information by default on the Status bar, it also allows you to customize the status bar. You can choose between showing more or less information on the status bar by selecting/deselecting the available options.
To customize the status bar, simply right-click anywhere on the status bar to open the options.
Simply click on the option that doesn’t have the tick mark on the left side to make it visible on the status bar. In the same way, you can click on the option to deselect it. Now the tick mark will be removed and that option not be shown on the status bar.
By default, maximum options are enabled on the status bar. Below are the options that are not enabled by default, but you can consider adding them to the status bar.
Workbook Statistics:
When you enable the Workbook Statistics option, this option will display on the status bar beside the cell mode.
Once you click on the Workbook Statistics option on the status bar, it will display some stats about the current worksheet and workbook.
Caps Lock and Num Lock:
When you enable the Caps Lock and Num Lock options, these will be shown on the status bar when they are turned on.
